The flame of revenge
by Mine de Crayon
Summary: Castle and Beckett are young parents and they are trying to maintain a work-life balance while a horrific fire occurs in New York City.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

That morning, as every morning since the birth of their twins seven months earlier, Rick got up as soon as he heard the first cries of his sons which indicated that they were awake and hungry. He was always the one who got up in the morning.

Kate had returned to her job with the police a few weeks earlier and she needed some sleep to recover from her stressful days.

He went up to the bedroom where his sons were sleeping and carried them to have their breakfast bottle. He had always loved those special moments he shared with Kate and their children when the city could be heard slowly waking up.

A few moments later, Kate joined them before going to pick up Lily, their eldest daughter, who had just woken up as well. The family had breakfast, happy to be together and to share these moments of uncomplicated happiness.

* * *

Around eight o'clock, Kate was informed by text message from the police station that a fire had occurred in New York City.

"New case?" Rick asked as he fed their daughter.

"Yes, there was a fire last night." Kate replied by reading the message to her husband. "Bodies have been found in the house and there is evidence that the fire resulted from arson."

"Are Lanie and the guys in the scene yet?"

"Yes, they just arrived and they're looking for elements! I still have a little time left before I have to go."

The young woman peacefully finished her breakfast and took a shower before heading for the place where the fire had taken place.

Since their children were born, Rick had stopped his collaboration with his wife to have enough time to take care of the kids. Kate always struggled to get to work in the morning: she felt she was leaving her husband to look after their children on his own, and she missed her collaboration with her husband. She felt far away from her family during her working days.

* * *

When she arrived in front of the place where the fire had taken place, Kate saw directly that it was a wealthy house in a posh Manhattan neighborhood. She reunited with the two cops and with Lanie.

"Have you been able to find out anything about the family that lives in the house?" The captain asked.

"The house belongs to Ralph and Lyn Nicolaus." Ryan explained. "The husband works as a surgeon and the wife runs a large accounting firm. They have two children: Ralph Junior, aged eight, and Lisa, aged five."

"In short," Esposito summarized, "we are talking about the exemplary family. We didn't find anything wrong with them, not even a parking violation."

"Lanie," Kate asked as she turned to the coroner, "have you been able to identify the bodies we found?"

"Three corpses were found: one in the hallway, one in the dining room and one in the master bedroom. The body in the hallway matches the size of Lyn Nicolaus and the one in the bedroom the size of her husband. We'll collect samples for DNA testing to ascertain the identity of the bodies and we'll know more about the identity of the third body when we get back to the morgue."

"Do we know where both of the kids are?" Kate asked as she turned to the two policemen.

"Not for the moment!" Esposito responded. "We've issued an Amber Alert!"

"Great initiative!" Kate agreed. "Have you managed to establish a timeline for the evening?"

"One of the neighbors who lives across the street from the house of the Nicolaus family said she saw the family go home last night at around nine o'clock." Ryan stated in reading his notes. "They were apparently out to dinner at some restaurant in the neighborhood. Half an hour later, Lyn Nicolaus picked up from a neighbor's house a package that had been delivered to the wrong house. The two women talked for about ten minutes and then Lyn went home. We know the fire started around midnight."

"This really ought to be a safe neighborhood!" Kate remarked, thinking aloud. "Usually this kind of neighborhood is crawling with surveillance cameras. Do you know if that's the case here?"

"Yes, it is!" Ryan explained. "There' s a camera right there in front of the house, but we just got access to the files. Vikram is retrieving the recordings and analyzing them!"

"All right, put every brigade in the city on high alert!" Kate commanded her team. "We need to locate the children as quickly as possible! Lanie, try to identify the bodies as fast as you can. We need to know if it's the Nicolaus or if it's other people."

"In the meantime," Esposito added, "the brother of Ralph Nicolaus is on his way to the precinct. You were always the best at interrogations!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

When the three policemen returned to the precinct, they found James Nicolaus waiting for them with a blank stare. Kate walked into the break room to talk with Ralph Nicolaus's brother, a distinguished young man who worked as a schoolteacher.

"Mister Nicolaus," the policewoman asked, "I'm sorry for what happened to your brother, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you a few questions to find out what happened and where your nephews are."

"Our parents died when we were kids, so we had to spend our childhood in foster care, and Ralph became my only home base at that time. He's my rock, my lighthouse in the darkness. He's the one who showed me the way and made me what I am today. When we were in foster care, I would often find it difficult to do my homework, as there was a lot of noise and excitement around us. One night I came home from school and Ralph had built me some kind of a cavern in the closet. He had purchased noise insulation and placed it on the walls. He had even added cushions to keep me comfortable while I worked!"

"Do you know if your brother and your sister-in-law had any enemies?"

"No, everybody liked Ralph and Lyn. They were very generous, and they never lost sight of where they originated."

"Any chance they could've formed any enemies during their careers?"

"Ralph worked as a plastic surgeon, and he did mostly reconstructive procedures. Lyn is an accountant, nobody's enemies with an accountant. Furthermore, she does not administrate large organizations, she mainly deals with medical firms."

"Do you know where your nephews are?"

"No, I don't have a clue! You must find them! You absolutely must find them as fast there as possible! Since he was born, Junior has been suffering from a severe form of asthma. If he has a seizure and doesn't get his medication, he may not survive it! We must find him, and I must protect him. Ralph protected me and I have to protect Ralph Junior."

"Sir, I can assure you that every police force in this city is looking for your nephews! You know, I've got kids myself, and I'll do anything to make sure nothing happens to your brother's kids. We are the most powerful police force in the United States, we will find them! I promise, I swear to you."

"I'm counting on you, Captain Beckett."

"I'm just going to need to ask you a few final questions. First, do you know who the third person who died in the fire might be?"

"It's probably Ethel, Ethel James. She's a young girl who works as a nanny for my brother and his wife. In return for her work, my brother offered her accommodation and payed for her to attend daytime classes so that she could become a nurse."

"To finish, would you have noticed any changes in the behavior of your brother and his wife over the last while?"

"To be completely honest, something pretty weird happened a few months ago. Ralph came to me and asked me to agree to run some kind of association. I told him I didn't have time to have any responsibilities, he said he would do fine without my help and we never talked about it again!"

"Do you remember the name of that association?"

"As I remember it, that association was called the Regina Reeves Foundation! I do remember it because it felt like an unusual name and because I didn't know who exactly that Regina Reeves was!"

"Thank you for answering my questions, Mr. Nicolaus!" Kate said as she got up. "We will call you back if we have any other questions."

* * *

When she came out of the room, Kate saw that Ryan and Esposito were talking to Vikram. She joined them to see what they found.

"Well," Kate asked Vikram, "have you managed to get access to the security camera footage?"

"Yes, I've extracted the footage in which we can see the house of the Nicolaus." Vikram said as he opened the video player. "That way, we can establish a timeline of events from last night. At six o'clock Ralph Nicolaus drives his children home after school. Twenty minutes later Ethel James arrived as she was back from her classes for her nursing degree. At 18:54, they all leave to join Lyn at a restaurant called The New York Grill. However, if you follow the route followed by the Nikolaus's car, you can see that Ralph Nicolaus took a break on his way, entered an office building, stayed there for almost twenty minutes and came out carrying a sports bag!"

"What kind of companies are based in that office building?" Kate asked as she looked consciously at the footage, as if the answer would magically appear to her.

"A logistics firm, a company specialized in mail-order sales and a web development firm." Vikram said as he looked at the contents of his tablet. "Nothing special or related to the life of the Nikolaus!"

"Do we know what he did when he got into that building?" Ryan questioned.

"No, we don't!" Vikram replied. "There are monitoring cameras all over the building, but that night the systems were under maintenance, so the cameras were disabled."

"What happened when Ralph Nicolaus came out of the building?" Kate asked the investigators. "Did they straight to the restaurant?"

"Yes, they did!" Vikram replied, scrolling through the CCTV footage. "They all reached the New York Grill at 7:37 pm. They all settled down at a table, had dinner there and finished their dinner at 8:42 pm. They drove back and arrived home at 9:00 pm. As the neighbor said, Lisa retrieved the parcel at 9:13pm and then the whole family went home! We see all the lights in the house slowly turning off and at 23:00, everything is in darkness except for the living room. We see the first flames appear an hour later."

"Do we see people going in or out of the house?" Esposito asked. "The point is to find out whether the person who started the fire was already in the house and whether the children have left the house."

"No one can be seen going in or out the front door!" Vikram responded. "Still, there's a back door that the arsonist or the children could have used. Unfortunately for us, there are no cameras covering this area!"

"Kate, I just received a text from Lanie!" Esposito said looking at his phone. "They just finished autopsying the bodies!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

When Kate walked into the morgue, the young woman headed straight to her friend who was sitting at her desk, writing her report.

"So, Lanie," the policewoman asked, "are these the bodies of Ralph Nicolaus, his wife and the young nanny?"

"Two of the bodies indeed belong to Ralph Nicolaus and Ethel James but the third body is not that of Lyn Nicolaus. Based on his DNA, I can tell you that the body belongs to Anthony Harris, a 23-year-old college student. We collected his DNA when he got pulled over after a speeding violation a few years ago."

"This whole case is really getting weirder and weirder!" Kate said, considering the elements that Lanie had passed on to her. "Were you able to establish if they died in the fire or if they died before?"

"They had no smoke in the lungs!" Lanie replied by reading her autopsy report. "We can conclude that they were dead before the fire. I can even tell you that I've managed to establish how they died. They were all shot in the head!"

"Were you able to establish the size of the murder weapon?"

"The weapon used is a small handgun, used mainly for self-defense and to dissuade perpetrators by frightening them. The advantage of this type of weapon is that it makes very little noise and is easily portable."

"How can a self-defense weapon kill?"

"Quite simply because a bullet hurts when you point it correctly, even if the gun isn't very powerful. Moreover, this kind of gun is easily modified if you know how to do it. Such a modified weapon is extremely dangerous."

"Are there any files on who owns those kinds of weapons?"

"Yeah, we have that kind of files. The advantage is that this specific model is definitely not widespread at all. There are only 30,500 units currently in use in the United States. I e-mailed you the file containing the names of all the people who own those weapons!"

"Have you been successful in establishing what caused the fire?"

"According to the arson investigator, the fire was started in the kitchen, probably because of the stove. It appeared that the entire house had been deliberately doused with gasoline. We even found residue on the bodies."

"The killer obviously wanted to eliminate any evidence. This case is really starting to get weird! We must absolutely locate the children!"

"Kate, you know, you can take a step back if it's hard for you to work this case!"

"Why would I take a step back?"

"This investigation involves missing children and you're a young mother. In cases like this, it's pretty easy to picture the Nikolaus children as yours. I fully understand how that could be a source of stress for you!"

"Lanie, I'm not going to lie to you: I don't like working on missing children, but my job is to bring justice to the victims. I don't have a lot of time to waste so I'm going to put my feelings aside, find these kids and find out who took their parents away from them. Having said that, I have to tell you that I really want to go home and hug my husband and children, just to make sure they're there and that they're not going anywhere else. By the way, I'm afraid I have to go. It seems that Ryan and Esposito have moved on and found some information!"

* * *

When Kate got back to her detectives, she saw right away that they were talking to Vikram.

"All right, guys," the young woman asked, leaning on a chair, "have you been able to establish where Lyn Nicolaus is?"

"No, we haven't!" Esposito answered. "She basically vanished. We checked every camera in the neighborhood, but we didn't find anything. No footage of the mother, no footage of the kids."

"Were you able to find more information?" Kate interrogated the detectives

"I'll go first!" Ryan began by placing himself in front of the captain. "I found something interesting. For the past month, Ethel James and the third victim Anthony Harris have been calling and texting each other almost every day. I talked to Ethel James's college best friend and apparently Ethel and Anthony had been dating for three weeks. Ethel's friend also told me that mister and miss Nikolaus didn't know about the romance between the two young men."

"Which explains why Anthony was at the Nicolaus's house that night." Kate said as she looked at the whiteboard. Since the couple was quite recent, Anthony probably entered the house through the back door to see his girlfriend."

"As for me," Vikram continued explaining, "I've been investigating the foundation James Nicolaus told us about. According to their website, the Regina Reeves Foundation is a non-profit foundation that sends food parcels to developing countries."

"Have you been able to identify who's running this foundation?" Kate asked

"That's how it gets interesting!" Vikram answered. "The foundation was founded five years ago by Ralph Nikolaus Junior!"

"Hold on a second!" Kate interrupted him. "Was the foundation really founded by a four-year-old at the time?"

"That's exactly what happened!" Vikram remarked. "We would have to check the information given by them to the authorities to establish the foundation. Nevertheless, six months ago, the direction of the foundation was transferred to someone named James Thomas Peterson."

"Who's that guy?"

"An old childhood friend of Ralph Nikolaus. The problem is that he died at the age of twelve after a car accident!"

"Well, the puzzle is getting both more and more complicated and more and more simple all at the same time." Kate summarized. "Whatever this foundation is hiding, Ralph Nikolaus must have wanted to keep something secret for the world."

"I'm going to look into that foundation!" Vikram said as he was looking at his boss. "Normally, if there's anything we need to know about this foundation, it's going to be in files. I'll get the feds to check their files, see if they know anything."

"The feds are supposed to have records on every organization, association or foundation in the country!" Esposito commented, approving the investigator's suggestion.

"Well, I'll let you work peacefully!" Kate said before ending the discussion and retrieving her jacket. "My babies are waiting for me at home. See you guys tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow, Captain!" The three policemen answered with one voice.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

When Kate came home, right in front of her, she saw a moment that made her extremely happy and made her forget for a moment about her day at work.

Her husband was sitting on the couch and working on his computer while her daughter was playing with a doll and her sons were babbling in their baby chairs.

She successively deposited a tender kiss on the foreheads of each member of her family and then sat down on the couch next to her husband. His daughter quickly came to sit on her knees.

"How was your day?" The writer asked her wife

"That was stressful, very stressful. How about the four of you? Was everything all right?"

"Well, it's been a pretty smooth day."

"What have you done?"

"Alexis came over to spend part of the day with us because she had time on her hands. As a matter of fact, she asked me to greet you. We all went to the park together and had a quiet lunch. The kids went to nap and Alexis left around three o'clock because she had a case to plead in court."

"Did you have time to write while they were asleep?"

"I tried to write for a while, but I had writer's block, so I watched some true crime documentaries!"

"That's a good way of summing up our collaboration: I solve true crimes while you watch documentaries about true crimes!"

"Stop making fun of me! By the way, how is your case going?"

"I don't know. I feel that there is no consistency in this case, and it makes me anxious not to be able to find these children. Imagine, if we can't find them and little Ralph Junior loses his life during an asthma attack, I'll blame myself for the rest of my life!"

"Kate, let me remind you that you are objectively the best investigator ever. You actually beat Batman to the top of the charts!"

"Just stop! I feel that these days I am not up to the task as a captain or as a mother. When I'm at work, I think that I let you take care of our kids on your own whereas I promised you that I would never do that. At the same time, when I'm at home, I feel guilty that I don't have the ability to bring justice to the victims." As she said this and opened her heart to her husband this way, she felt a tear running down her cheek. "Since the birth of the twins, I feel like I can't fit any of my roles anymore! I almost feel like I have to choose between being a mother and being a cop."

"Kate, there are several things I need to tell you." The writer says, looking his wife in the eye. "First of all, you're the best mom ever. Of course, you can't be there during the day because you're working, but there's an unquestionable truth: I don't take care of our children on my own. In the evening you read them books to put them to sleep, during the night you always go to check if they haven't lost their pacifiers, every night you prepare their clothes so that they are always comfortable and clean in the morning, whenever the children are sad you demonstrate a tenderness that I have rarely witnessed in this world. Do you want me to keep listing all the reasons why you take such great care of our children?"

He put one hand on his wife's palm so that she could feel the strength of the emotion he felt when he said those words.

"Second of all, you don't always have to be perfectly perfect. You have the right to stop dedicating your whole life to your work. For years and years, you've devoted all your time and energy to bringing justice. Just because you can't give the NYPD as much time as you used to, doesn't mean you're not as strong a cop as you used to be. You're an excellent cop and you always will be because you put your heart into your cases. For you, these cases are not just numbers or statistics, they are humans to whom you bring justice. You don't care if these people made mistakes or not, if these people were good or bad, or if these people did or didn't do harm to people around them. It's also why I fell in love with you. You always bring justice to the people and you will continue doing it. Don't worry, you're going to find those kids and you're going to put the person who did this behind bars. In the meantime, I want you to relax tonight and I just want you to stop judging yourself. You're an excellent mother and an excellent cop!"

"You know, whenever you get to tell me exactly the right thing to say to me, I really miss working with you!"

"I miss working with you too. I miss our connection for deductions, those moments when I'd watch you interrogate suspects and the moments when in a split second the whole puzzle would fall into one perfect drawing. But we both know that we can't work together again unless we can find a way to get childcare."

"That's impossible! You know I'm a policewoman, I know the harm nannies can do to children."

"Kate, I know this is going to be challenging for both of us but taking a nanny on some days doesn't mean we abandon our children. It'll just mean that some days our kids will be with people other than us. It can't hurt them to see other things, things we won't show them. In addition, if checking the criminal record and the psychiatric profile of all candidates can help the situation, then we will do so. Let me remind you that you are a cop and you have access to all the databases available."

"I just have a really strong feeling that it's going to be hard to leave our children to strangers. How can we be a hundred percent sure they're not going to hurt, injure or say mean things to our children?"

"That's the reason why we're going to be taking it one step at a time. First, we could trust my mother to take care of the children, then we'll give them to a nanny whom we will have carefully chosen. For the first few days, I'll stay home and watch what she does until we have confidence in her. Is that okay with you?"

"Sounds perfect! When do we start the process?"

"If you want, we can start tomorrow. I'll ask my mother to come and take care of the kids. That way, we can solve this case together."

"Sounds like a perfect plan!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The next morning, Martha arrived early at her son's apartment. She really wanted her son and his wife to be able to enjoy the day of working with each other again. As soon as she entered the apartment, she noticed immediately a big smile on the face of her daughter-in-law, who was very happy to be reunited with her husband again.

Martha had always loved taking care of her grandchildren. So, when her son called her and asked her to take care of them so he could spend a day working with Kate, she didn't have any hesitation in accepting.

"How are my fabulous grandchildren?" Martha asked as she entered the loft, whilst Kate was feeding the twins and Rick was upstairs dressing their daughter. "And how are my marvelous children?"

"Your children are doing great!" Kate replied, enthusiastic about the day that was to come. "Your grandchildren are doing great, too."

"That's such wonderful news, Katherine!" Martha replied enthusiastically, settling down next to his daughter-in-law. "You know, Richard has confided in me some of your concerns about your abilities as a mother and as a captain. I know a lot about being an away-from-home parent and I can tell you that you don't fit into any of the categories I've established. You're such a great mom, Katherine! The only point of improvement I see is that you need to have a little more self-confidence!"

"Thanks so much for sharing those words with me, Martha! You know, your opinion means the world to me."

"You're welcome! Now go get ready for a wonderful workday with your husband and let me take care of those gems."

* * *

When Rick and Kate set foot in the police station, they were both overwhelmed by a kind of excitement. They went and gathered around the white board with the three investigators in order to review the information they had gathered.

"Welcome home, Castle!" Esposito greeted his friend. "What brought you back among us?"

"His life is definitely less fun for him when he doesn't get to see us every day!" Ryan said to make his friend laugh.

"Guys, stop making fun of Rick!" Kate retorted to the detectives. "Besides, I can tell you that my kids are infinitely funnier than you. Well, let's start getting into serious business: what information have you gathered?"

"To begin with," Vikram started, "using the feds databases, I was able to discover a lot of documents about the foundation. I have discovered how it was possible to set up a foundation headed by a five-year-old child."

"How did they do it?"

"It just so happens that the application for incorporation was accepted by an administrative officer named Joseph Peterson! What is even more interesting is that he is nothing less than the older brother of the current president of the Regina Reeves Foundation who died as a kid."

"We're really going to have to talk to this man." Said Kate, thinking about the whole case. "Do we know where he is now?"

"He'll be at the precinct in a while." Vikram explained to his boss. "I sent officers to his house this morning to take him to the precinct."

"Very nice, very interesting," Kate continued, "what else have you found out?"

"On my side," Esposito explained, "I went through the database of people who bought the type of gun that was used in the murder. I therefore tried to see if any of these people were related to the Nicolaus family or to Ethel James and her boyfriend."

"Did you find anything interesting?" Rick asked

"Yeah, guess who bought a self-defense gun six months ago?"

"Who?" The other four investigators asked at the same time.

"The brother of Ralph Nicolaus, Mr. James Nicolaus. He's currently waiting in the interrogation room."

* * *

When Kate stepped into the interrogation room where Ralph Nicolaus' brother was sitting, she saw immediately that the young man still had a blank look in his eyes and that when he saw her, he got a fearful look in his eyes.

"I didn't expect to see you again on such short notice, Captain Beckett!" The young teacher said as Kate sat down on front of him.

"Neither do I." The captain answered. "May I ask where you were and what you were doing the night your brother's house burned down?"

"Are you really asking me if I have an alibi for the fire my brother and only family died in?" James Nicolaus retorted, offended that he could be accused.

"Yes, I'd like to know exactly what you were doing that particular night."

"I was basically home. Grading assignments from my students and then sleeping."

"So, I guess no one can testify to that?"

"No, no one can testify about that because I was home alone. But I don't understand why I'm accused of murdering the most important person in my life when the perpetrator is still out there. As we speak, I would like to remind you that my nephews are still away and in the hands of someone who can hurt them."

"Sir, can you explain how come the victims were killed with a weapon of the same model as your gun?"

"I own no weapons."

"Yes, you bought a self-defense weapon six months ago."

"I bought it, but then I gave it to my sister-in-law. It was a kind of gift."

"Why did you buy her a gun?"

"Well, it's pretty simple. My brother goes… or I should say went … he went regularly to conferences, seminars and surgeries out-of-town. In addition, there was a wave of burglaries in the neighborhood in which they lived. That's why I bought her a gun, to make her feel safe and feel okay when she was alone at home with the kids when it got dark."

"Okay, I'm going to ask you again to be available to the investigators for the rest of the investigation."

* * *

When Kate stepped out of the interrogation room, Esposito went directly to tell her that the public servant who had accepted the foundation form had just arrived at the station and was in the other interrogation room.

"Good morning, Mr. Peterson," the young woman said as she entered the room, "do you know the reason why you're here?"

"No, not at all. I don't feel like a gangster. I am not a goddamn thug. I'm just a public servant!"

"What's your connection to Ralph Nicolaus?"

"We met when we were kids, because we grew up in the same foster care. Why are you asking me about my connection to Ralph? Has something happened to him?"

"Sir, Ralph Nicolaus has been murdered two days ago."

"What?!" The public servant replied, in shock at this revelation.

"That's why we need to ask you some questions. We've noticed that you have consented to Ralph Nicolaus creating a foundation, the Regina Reeves Foundation. The problem is that this foundation was under the directions of under the direction of his five-year-old son. Why did you approve this application?"

"He phoned me and gave me the request for a foundation constitution. On the spot, I told him that I had to refuse this file, but he explained to me that he had to create a foundation to help people, so I bypassed the system and accepted."

"Did he explain to you how he was going to use this foundation as a way to help people?"

"He explained to me that he regularly went to Mexico because of a contract between the hospital where he worked and a Mexican hospital. There, he had established a partnership with a bank and, as a result, he could make interesting investments to help his New York friends and, at the same time, use a small part of the interest to send basic necessities to developing countries. A foundation allowed him to pay less tax on these investments and send more stuff abroad. Furthermore, he offered to give me $5,000 if I accepted the application."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

As she left the interrogation room, Kate's mind was even more confused than it had been at the beginning of the day. She approached the other members of her team who were chatting around Ryan and Esposito's office.

"How'd it go with the civil servant?" Rick asked his wife. "Why did he accept the application to set up a foundation?"

"First of all, five thousand bucks!" Kate answered. "In addition, Ralph Nicolaus wanted to offer preferred investments to the people of New York through agreements that had been made with Mexican banks to enable him to finance philanthropic operations with interest."

"Why Mexican banks?" Rick explained. "Normally, donations through interest are made using American banks."

"Apparently," Kate continued, "these investments are enabled by an agreement between the hospital where Ralph Nicolaus worked and a Mexican hospital."

"One thing is for sure," Rick concluded, "we need to go to Ralph Nicolaus Hospital to find out exactly the terms of those agreements."

* * *

A few minutes later, Rick and Kate arrived in front of the large hospital in which Ralph Nicolaus worked as a plastic surgeon. They walked in front of the hospital director's office. She welcomed them in a large windowed office from which you could see all the hustle and bustle of the doctors and patients endlessly walking on one side and the surrounding city on the other.

"So, officers," Paula Clarke, the hospital director, asked, "what do you want to talk about? I hope the hospital is not in any trouble."

"We're here to talk about one of your surgeons." Kate answered.

"Which one?" Paula Clarke questioned

"Ralph Nicolaus" Kate said

"Who?" The hospital director asked, with a surprised expression on her face.

"Ralph Nicolaus," Kate replied, "one of the plastic surgeons from your hospital."

"I've never heard this name in my whole life!" Paula Clarke said in an empowered voice. "This person never worked as a surgeon here in my hospital."

"Have you ever seen this person before?" Kate asked, showing the director a photograph of Ralph Nicolaus.

"No, I haven't!" Paula Clarke replied as she was tapping on the keys of her computer. "And by the way, I'm looking at the database of the Society of American Doctors, I can tell you that this person has never been a doctor."


End file.
